Rose Academy High - Freshman Year
by ElizavetaHedervary
Summary: Friendships are made, friendships are broken. It's all part of the cycle of life. What Armin Arlert doesn't know - and he knows quite a bit - is that his first year as a boarding student at Rose Academy high isn't going to be as bad as he thinks. Of course, drama and arguments will ensure, but sometimes, it's important to filter that out and appreciate these four years ahead.
1. Introduction

Author's Note: Hey all, this is a project I've been wanted to start for a while now. Essentially, I'm going to be writing 100 chapters, 25 for each year in high school. This being the first of many, I'm really excited to start this. My plan is to update weekly, though sometimes I may upload extras and sometimes I may have to skip a week. Not every Attack on Titan character is going to be in this chapter, or even the next 24. But don't worry, almost every character is planned to come in at some point, those points being carefully chosen. I really hope you guys like this first chapter! My goal is to make this as realistic as possible, and since I've sort of lived this type of situation, I hope I can replicate it well! Thanks for reading!

Hectic. Disorderly. Strange. Those were all words that Armin had a burning hatred for. Well, that could be argued. Now that he thought about it, he's never really hated anyone or anything for anything. Silly him.

Opening day at Rose Academy High School was terrifying, to say the least. The tiny blonde was just starting out as a freshman, a boarding student with a hole in his heart only filled by home. Home was far away, a long drive that Armin only previously associated with week-long vacations at the beach and visits to relatives he hardly knew to congratulate them on their marriage, graduations, and everything else under the sun. It wasn't until today that he realized he is now the one that's hours away from home, the one on the path to experiencing the life-changing events that he only viewed from the sidelines.

Armin's grandfather was the one to drive him up all the way to school. After all, he was the one to suggest private school for intellectually-gifted student. Besides, his parents were off on some sort of expedition as usual. Armin often found himself at his grandfather's house when they were away, so it was no surprise to him when he found out that the elderly man was going to be the one to start him off on the newest chapter of his life.

The blonde's heart lurched as the packed-up car slid into the parking spot and the engine's constant rumble ceased. "You excited?" his grandfather inquired, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder.

Armin closed his eyes and nodded. "Everyone else there already knows each other," he pointed out. "Because of preseason. They've been here for a few days. What if they just ignore me?"

"You'll be fine," Grandfather says and opens the door to step out of his car. "Come on, we have to register and get your room key. Oh! And your schedule! I bet you're excited to find out what classes you're in, huh? Even if those other kids don't befriend you at first, they'll surely take notice of how good of a student you are."

Armin shrugs. "High schoolers don't exactly see intellect as 'cool'."

"You'll be fine."

"I'm just nervous is all."

The duo made their way out of the parking lot, following the various signs on campus pointing toward registration. It was a tidy, compact little school, Armin remembered, from when he first visited for a tour and interview back during the application process. Now it's home. Home. For the next four years, this was his home. A few other students were making their way into registration, others bringing boxes up to their rooms. For the older ones, this was old news. Armin couldn't exactly pinpoint who were freshmen, but he could guess that some of the smaller, more visibly-nervous ones were in his class.

"Ah. You're…" a small woman asked, beaming as she began to search through the nametags in front of her.

"Armin Arlert," Armin replied after glancing up at his grandfather.

The woman nods, and passes a bundle of items over to the boy. "This here is your nametag, but you only need it for today. And this is your room key… And here is your class schedule. This here is your card. It allows you to buy things on campus and lets you into the dorms. You have a few hours to set up in your room and then you can grab a bite to eat. You'll be having the chance to meet your advisor and classmates in a little while. Until then, get to know your new roommate!" Right. Roommate. Armin was so worried about other things that he had forgotten he would get a roommate. The boy took the objects in his shaky hands and followed his grandfather back to the car. It's not as if he didn't want to go to boarding school. In fact, he strongly believed that having a chance to live away from home and manage his own life would be very beneficial to his future. He also knew that he'd have a brief adjustment period.

"You need any help? You know where your dorm is?" a voice piped up from behind them. Armin turned around, startled, to see a tall, excited brunette girl. She had a childlike face complete with lively brown eyes, but it was clear that she knew the place, and well. "I'm Zoe," she said, extending a hand. "Nice to meet you. And you are?"

"A-Armin," the blonde replies and shakes her hand.

"Are you a freshman?"

"Yeah."

"Are you a boy?"

Armin furrowed his brow and nodded. "Yeah." Did he not look enough like a boy or something?

The girl laughed. "Just making sure, Armin! Don't sweat it. Anyway, I'm a senior here at Rose Academy, and, well, as you probably can guess, I know every dorm here on campus. Since you're a freshman boy, I'll bet you're over in Shiganshina. Weird name, I know. It's named after some donor or something. Come on, let's get your to your room." She waved a hand and beckoned for them to follow, though Armin's mind was racing. The people here seemed nice. Well, at least Zoe did. But how could he be so sure that he'll ever see or speak to her again? She was a senior. Seniors didn't talk to freshmen.

"You in a sport or anything?" Zoe asked as she pressed her card to the scanner on the door and held it open for Armin and his grandfather. "I'm in soccer."

"No," Armin replied.

"What are you going to be doing for an activity, then?"

"I'm not sure yet."

"You'd better figure it out soon. You have to do something. But don't worry, there are plenty of choices for you."

After traveling two flights of stairs, smirks and gazes down the hallway ahead. "Your room number is on your key. You all set?" Zoe asked and placed her hands on her hips. "Huh. I don't go here often. It looks different than I remember."

"I think I'm good," Armin replied and pulled his key out of his pocket. 307.

Zoe nodded and waved as she hopped down the stairs, the energy beaming from her as if she were a star of her own. "Have fun!" she exclaimed and, with that, she was gone, probably to help out another lost freshman.

"See? I told you the people here are nice," his grandfather pointed out as the two began to make their way down the hallway. It was absolutely cluttered with boxes and suitcases, ready to be unpacked and stored away for the next nine months. "Ah, 307. That's your room, right?"

Armin nodded and raised a hand to knock on the door. No response. He slowly turned the knob and pushed it open. No one was there. That could only have meant that his roommate didn't participate in preseason. He was probably going to arrive in the next few hours. "Armin, how about you pick out your bed, desk, and closet? I'll be back up with the first of your suitcases. Try to say hi to some of the other kids, okay?" his grandfather said as he propped open the door and backed out of the room and down the hallway.

The blonde walked into the center of the room and smiled. Alright. This was a lot bigger than he thought it would be. They were in a bunk bed, just across from two desks and dressers. He thought for a moment before deciding to claim the upper bunk. He figured that his roommate would be more likely to be content with the lower bed than the higher one.

"Hey!" someone's voice called from the doorway. Armin whipped his head around to see a taller blonde guy. He's a freshman? "I'm Thomas. Day student. You?"

"Armin," Armin replied and smiled shyly. "I just got here."

"And I see that your roommate hasn't. Yeesh, he's like, the only one not here yet. I kinda want to meet everyone before our entire grade gets together. Well, good for you, you get first dibs on stuff. There are two boarders down the hall that have been here all preseason and still can't agree on who gets what bed. Worst roommates ever. I'd stay away from them for now so you can actually focus on unpacking. Come visit the day student room once you're done, though!" Thomas grinned, leaning in the doorway. "By the way, I'd recommend this closet. The door opens on the other one and, if you happen to have the doorstopper out, you'll get stuck behind it. Not a good time. One of the guys learned that the hard way yesterday."

"Uh, thanks!" Armin shouted just as the day student sped away and down the hall, likely to visit some of the other freshman that have already unpacked. Soon after, his grandfather arrived with the first suitcase.

"Want to come down with me to get the rest of the stuff?" he asked and gestured for the young blonde to follow him out the door. Armin nodded and followed him down the two flights of stairs. He knew that his legs would be burning later after carrying up all of his things. Sure enough, after about six trips to and from the car, he was panting and ready to unpack. Gee, it was sure hot out…

"I'll hang up your formal wear," his grandfather offered and began to unzip one of the suitcases.

Armin crouched down and went for his crate of textbooks mixed with other stories he simply wanted to read for fun. He hoped he had time for some pleasure reading every once in a while. It only took a little while for him to load up his desk, pack his dresser, and make his bed. Of course, the latter required some assistance from his grandfather. Putting sheets on a bunk bed is not the easiest thing in the world. He finished up by plugging in his lamp, clock, chargers, and whatever else was needed before lugging down each of the suitcases and boxes in which his belongings arrived. Even without his roommate, this room was starting to feel like home. He could do this. Of course he could. His favorite fluffy, blue blanket was on his bed. His lucky pencil was in his desk and ready to go. His most comfortable pajamas were in the dresser, ready to be worn on a stressful school night. Even his comfort foods were stored in the closet to be eaten if the school meals that day were terrible. He could manage this. And he won't be alone. His roommate is going to be going through this with him!

By the time Armin had arrived back at his room and his grandfather had departed to a parents' meeting, he noticed another kid standing in the doorway. "Hey," the stranger said, waving quickly. "I'm going to assume you're my roommate." Armin thought he was short, but this kid clearly put a whole new meaning. He was skinny, donning green eyes and with very short hair. He extended a hand. "I'm Connie."

"I'm Armin," the blonde replied and stepped back to let the boy wheel his suitcase into the room. "You need any help?"

"I got it," he replied. "I have just a few suitcases and some boxes. I had the boxes mailed here so I didn't have to bring them on the plane."

"Oh. Where are you from?" Armin asked, moving over to sit at his desk so Connie could open up his suitcase in the middle.

"Florida."

"That's a hike."

"Yeah. You?"

"Vermont."

"That's not too bad. Only a few hours east of here, right?"

"Right."

"Now that I think about it… I could use some help getting my suitcases up here. They're at the bottom of the staircase if you're willing to bring them up," he said as he began placing neatly-folded shirts into his dresser. Armin gave a mental sigh of relief. Connieseemed like a relatively clean roommate. There are plenty of boys out there who would ball up their outfits and toss them into their drawers or on the floor.

When he finally returned with the other two suitcases Connie had downstairs, the boy had finished unpacking on of his bags and wheeled it into his closet. "Have you met any of our classmates yet? Are they nice?"

"I met one so far. He's a day student. I think his name was Thomas…" Armin replied. "He seemed friendly, though. I'm not sure about the others…"

"I've been really excited for this," Connie said dreamily. "It's so boring down in Florida. It's all old people, vacationers… snakes… I wanted to see someplace new, so I'm glad I came. Say, what are your classes?"

"Oh, uh…" Armin shuffled over to his desk and peered at the paper depicting his schedule. "Let's see… Pre-calculus, German, Biology, History, and English. And then that freshman class."

"Pre-calculus? As a freshman?" Connie asked as he quickly fastened a few of his jackets to hangers. "Impressive. I'm just in algebra. I've never been a math person. We might have a few classes together."

It didn't take long for Connie to finish unpacking his clothes. "Wanna head over to lunch? I think it starts right about now," he asked, holding up his key. "I'll lock the door behind us."

"Yeah. I was too nervous to eat breakfast today," Armin chuckled and followed the boy out the door.

"I would've given anything to not have to eat that crummy plane food. It was nasty. My layover in Baltimore was super short, so I had no time to get any real food," Connie replied. "I hope the food here is an improvement."

Armin chuckled and started to make his way down the stairs. "So," Connie asked. "What's your favorite thing to do?"

"Hm," the blonde thought for a moment. "I mostly like reading about, well, anything. Knowledge is power, you know?" He ended off with a slight laugh. "You?"

"I've always been a huge video game fan. I played all the time. I'm sure I won't get to play as often now, but I guess I don't mind. It's good for me anyway," the green-eyed boy said and lead the way into the dining hall. It was absolutely full of people, from teachers to students to parents. They silently got in line behind two other guys, taller than them, but judging by their immature conversation, they could easily be freshmen.

Both were brunettes, though the taller one had almost a fawn color in comparison to the deep chocolate hair of the other. "I really want the window desk," the taller one said, crossing his arms.

"Well I got there first. You can't have it. Maybe you should've come early then," the other replied and jabbed at his side.

"If you get the bed and desk you want, then why can't I at least pick my closet?"

"You snooze, you lose."

"This is hardly the way to get along with your roommate."

"This is hardly the way to not be a sore loser!"

The taller one glanced behind at us and gave a quick nod. "Sup. You must be freshmen."

"Yeah," Connie replied. "What grade are you in?"

"We're freshmen too," the shorter one said. "Jean here just likes to sound all high and mighty when he's really just an idiot horseface."

"I'm not a horseface."

"You are."

"What's your name?" Connie pushed on, looking to the darker brunette.

"Eren. And you two?" the shorter boy asked and looked to both of us.

Armin gulped. Maybe these two weren't going to be the nicest people in the grade. "I'm Armin and this is my roommate Connie."

"Come sit with me," Eren offered, smiling. "Let's get away from Jean."

"Or you could, you know, not sit with the biggest idiot of all time," Jean points out.

Connie crossed his arms. "Alright. Before any of this gets out of hand, how about I sit with you, Jean, and Armin, you sit with Eren. We'll just, you know, keep those distracted and away from each other."

Just a few minutes later, the four of them got to the front of the line and started to take a few slices of pizza and some scoops of pasta. Upon departing the small buffet line, Armin immediately made his way over to the salad bar. "You eat salad?" Eren asked from behind him.

"Well, yeah," Armin said. "It's healthy."

"Whatever floats your boat," he laughed. "I'm getting a cookie." He moves over to the dessert table nearby.

Armin looked up at him. "What's that supposed to mean? Don't tell me you were one of those kids who never ate his veggies."

"I don't eat veggies because my mom basically force-fed them to me. Bad memories," Eren explained and led the way to a nearby table. "So. What's your favorite color?"

Armin placed his plate on the table and stared at the brunette quizzically. "Huh?"

"Your favorite color. What is it?"

"Oh. Um, periwinkle."

"What the hell kind of color is that?"

"I guess you could say it's a mix between blue and purple."

"Well, my favorite color is green."

"Oh."

"You look freakin' terrified right now. I'm just trying to make conversation. You're already ten times better than Jean. … That was kind of insulting. You're at least a hundred times better than Jean." He glanced down at my plate. "What's your favorite real food?"

"Zucchini."

"I said real food."

"Uh," Armin laughed nervously, "maybe fish or something?"

"You probably already know my name is Eren. Eren Jaeger. You're Armin, right?"

"Armin Arlert."

"Did you say Armin Alert?"

"Arlert."

"Sounds like Alert to me."

"It's not."

"Okay, Armin Alert."

It was just after lunch and all of the students had been summoned outside to go and meet with their advisors. Armin wasn't quite sure what an advisor was, but he knew his was Mr. Zacharius and that he was supposed to be holding up a sign with his name on it. Sure enough, he located said sign and walked over amongst the masses to meet him.

He was a fairly tall man with light brown hair and stone-cold eyes, clearly not the friendly type. "You're Armin?" he asked, staring down at the blonde.

"Y-Yeah," Armin replied and tried to stand up tall as the strange man began to sniff him. "Huh?"

"I teach studio arts here at Rose. You're not my student, but you are my advisee, so we'll be meeting often. I'll be in contact with your parents and, if you ever have any questions or concerns, you can always talk to me. We have weekly meetings, shown on the class schedule, in my classroom, which is in the art building. Don't worry, campus is pretty easy to figure out. By the end of the week, you'll know where everything is."

"Hey, hey, hey!" a voice sounded from behind me.

"Huh?!" Armin cried as a hand came down on his shoulder.

It was Eren. "We have the same advisor!" he exclaimed.

"Nice," Armin replied, and shrugged the hand off, a smile on his face. He still hadn't made up his mind about the aggressive and energetic guy yet. Did he like him or not? He couldn't tell. He already missed Connie and his more docile attitude. Who was his advisor anyway?

A little while later, Mr. Zacharius said, "Okay, guys. You're freshmen, so head over to that side of the field over there. That's where your class will be meeting."

Eren and Armin nodded quickly and proceeded to the far end of the field where a small group of kids were already accumulating. One teacher was instructing everyone to get into a circle, his voice loud and demanding. "I'm Mr. Shadis," he shouted, "and I'm in charge of the 9th grade students this year. I want all of you to know that if you think I'm not watching, I am. I have eyes all over campus, kids. I'm sure all of you know the basic school rules that go without saying, but here I have handbooks for all of you. I want no dress code violations, no alcohol, no drugs, no sex - _n_ _ot that any of you guys could get laid or anything_ , nothing. Got it? Alright. Now let's get to know each other. Go around the circle, state your name and a fact about yourself. You, girl! You start."

A brunette girl, one who clearly hadn't been paying attention, jumps to attention at the sound of her name being called. "Sorry! What?"

"Name and fact about yourself. Pay attention!"

"Oh, okay. Hey all, I'm Sasha Brauss. I want to be a chef when I grow up, so I love to experiment with flavors and spices!"

A few other people went before another girl spoke up. "I'm Mikasa Ackerman. I have a black belt in three forms of martial arts."

Eren elbowed my side. "That's my sister. Well, adopted sister. She's cool, isn't she? She's a little overbearing, though," he explained. Armin nodded.

"I'm Connie Springer, and I've played basketball for about five years now."

"You play basketball? You're like a midget!" Sasha called out.

"Silence!" Mr. Shadis practically screamed and pointed to the next person in line.

Soon enough, it was Armin's turn to introduce himself. "I'm Armin Arlert and I, uh, my favorite thing to read about is astronomy since it's so fascinating."

"I'm Eren Jaeger and I play football, hockey, and baseball."

"My name is Jean Kirschstein and I also play hockey as well as soccer and lacrosse."

Soon enough, the rest of the freshmen introduced themselves, each one fairly unique. Armin decided that maybe this wouldn't be so bad. Maybe this really could be his new home, his new family.

Mr. Shadis cleared his throat, "Alright, students. We have a little scavenger hunt set up for all of you so you can find your way around campus. See the locations? When you find them, take a picture of you and your partner and text it to me. My number's on the sheet. All set?"

The students curtly nodded immediately began to shuffle themselves into groups. "Wait!" Mr. Shadis' voice screeches over the class' quiet chatter. "There is one condition. Your partner cannot be someone who you already know. If you know everyone, then just pick someone who's not your friend or something. Now go!"

Connie, clearly having been on his way over to Armin turned on his heels and decided to make his way over in the other direction. Armin clasped his hands together and tried to think. Well, he's already spoken to Eren and Jean. Did Thomas count? Oh. He's just partnered up with Connie.

"Haven't met you yet," said a female voice belonging to a girl donning raven-black hair and an emotionless glare. "I'm Mikasa. But you probably already know that since Eren likes to tell everyone that I'm his sister. I guess I'm cool enough to make him cool." She leaned in and whispered, "He's not cool. Don't let him believe that."

Armin chuckled and shook her hand. "I'm Armin. And yeah, Eren has told me." She responded with a simple nod. "Want to be my partner?"

She replied with a simple, "Sure", and took out her phone. "I'll take the pictures. First location?"

"Uh," Armin hummed and looked down at the piece of paper in his hand. "The soccer fields."

"Oh, I know where that is. I was here for preseason," she explained and started jogging toward a nearby street. "Hopefully you can keep up."

"I'll try!" Armin shouted behind her, except it was obvious that she could outrun him anyway. She could probably pick him up if she wanted to.

Just as they arrived the vast expanse of fields, a cackling laughter sounded from behind them. "I see Armin Alert has partnered up with the 'Kasa!" Armin gritted his teeth at the nickname, knowing for sure it was Eren. Unless he had decided to tell everyone to call him that. Was the aggressive brunette considered popular here? He hoped not. What about him was likeable, exactly? Maybe it was an acquired taste.

"Just mind your own business," Mikasa shouted back, her voice monotone and disinterested. Huh. Stuff like this must happen all the time here.

"I'm just trying to find the locations, yeesh!" Eren replied, coming up between the two and placing his hands on both of their shoulders.

Mikasa narrowed her eyes. "Do you have a partner or something?"

"Yeah. Some chick named Mina." He glanced behind him. "Maybe she lost me when we left the library."

Armin crossed his arms. "Don't you need both people for the pictures you need to send to Mr. Shadis?"

"Damn, I forgot all about that!" Eren shouted and threw his hands up in the air.

Mikasa rolled her eyes. "Go back to the damn library, Eren. Mina's probably waiting to take the stupid picture with you!"

In a panicked rush, likely fueled by the embarrassment brought upon by his careless mistake, Eren is out of sight in no time, leaving Mikasa to snap a quick picture of her and Armin. "He's so dumb," she mumbled, attaching the image to a text in her phone. "Eren could probably use a friend like you, someone who actually has some sense and logic in his brain. I've taken care of him for only a few years but my patience is already running thin."

"I admire you for even being able to handle him for more than a few minutes," Armin laughed. "In all truth, he seems alright. Just a stupid teenage boy."

"It seems like the next location is the theater. Let's go find that," Mikasa said, changing the subject and leading the way back to campus' center.

That evening, the entire school got together for a formal assembly and dinner. It was rather boring, and Armin was fairly confident that he and Mikasa were probably the only ones to even pay attention to the speeches and welcomes. It was the first time that he had seen the entire student body in one room. So many people. Yet so much fewer than the public school he had left behind.

Once all of the formalities were completed and all of the remaining sunlight slipped below the horizon, it was time to settle in for the night. Armin could see the window from his bed, the lamps outside illuminating the sidewalk below. He had never been at school during the nighttime before. It was strange, to say the least. The blonde laid back against his pillows and placed his earbuds into his ears in an attempt to drown out the sound of Connie opening his boxes from the mail with some of his music.

"That's a big computer," Armin observed, looking down at the boy setting up the monitor on his desk. "How are you gonna bring that to class?"

"I'm not bringing my _gaming_ computer," Connie laughed. "My mom gave me her old laptop for class. I saved up for this desktop. Do you play any games? You seem like an MMORPG guy."

"A what?"

"Massive Multiplayer Online Role Play Game."

"I have no idea what that is."

"I guess you're not that type of guy."

"Sometimes I play FarmVille."

"That honestly doesn't even count as a game."

"Sure it does."

"One of these days, I'm going to get you to play World of Warcraft."

"I heard that game is really addictive."

"You'd probably like it, though. You're a reader and stuff. Interested in fantasy?" Connie said, moving onto another box.

"I like all genres," Armin replied, shrugging.

"Say, what kind of books do you recommend?"

"Hm. I find that Michael Crichton's work is fascinating, but my favorite is Leo Tolstoy. Oh, and J.D. Salinger. But he only wrote The Catcher in the Rye. To Kill a Mockingbird is also nice, now that I think about authors that only published one book. Harper Lee. I have no idea why those two never published any more… Well, the latter just published Go Set a Watchman. It's at the top of my reading list this year."

"That's the most I've heard you talk ever. Heh. Nerd."

"Says the World of Warcraft player."

Connie laughed and started opening the last of his boxes. "You know, I feel like this is gonna be a great year. We're both clean - ignore my mess of boxes for right now - and we're both nerdy. I think we really lucked out."

Author's Note: I want to emphasize that I greatly appreciate any comments or critiques you have. Anything goes a long way since I *really* want to become a better writer. I'm also open to suggestions. For example, I have no idea of what I want Armin's afternoon activity to be... If you guys have any suggestions, let me know! I hope you all liked this and see you next week! (Or sooner, who knows!)


	2. Complicated

**Author's Note:** _Hey all, it's me, back with a second chapter! I'm having fun writing this, so hopefully this will keep going for all 100 chapters. For anyone wondering, pairings WILL become a part of the story later on. There will be a little bit (not not a ton) of that stuff in the Freshman Year section, since, you know, they're still pretty young. Later on, though, you should expect some pairings to be floating around!_

By the end of the third day of class, Armin had decided that he liked all of his teachers. It was simple, really. They all recognized his passion for learning and worked to help push him how he liked to be pushed. Usually, there was at least one teacher he could identify during the first class that was very rigid, very... uninspiring. Even so, it could be confidently assumed that this would be a smooth year.

"Yo, do you have Ms. Langnar for biology?" Connie asked, taking a quite bite out of a granola bar. They were on their way back to the dorm, having finished their final classes just moments ago. "I forget when the homework is due. Also, what's up with her?"

"What are you talking about?" Armin asked, trying his hardest not to think about food, though his roommate was proving to make that very difficult. He was starving, and dinner wasn't for a while.

Connie chuckled. "I dunno. She's seems... super emotional or something. Like I always feel like she's gonna break down in tears while talking about fungi."

Armin shrugged. "And yeah, I do have her. The homework's due on Monday."

"Sweet! I have the whole weekend to do it!" Connie exclaimed, raising a fist into the air. "You know, bio has been really easy so far."

"Yeah," Armin agreed. He dug into his pocket to find his card and raise it to the scanner. A quiet buzz later, Connie reached forward to grasp the door's handle and pull it open. Warm summer air turned to an artificially-chilled atmosphere, causing the blonde to pull his arms closer to his body. After all, while his roommate was donning a plaid flannel shirt, he was only wearing a short-sleeved polo.

They made their way over to the staircase just across the lobby, pushing their ways through masses of people on their way to sports practice or wherever they were obligated to be. Armin wasn't sure he'd ever get used to that, the hurried bustle of strangers and mixture of unfamiliar voices. Connie led the way up the staircase, seemingly in a hurry to get to his room.

"What's the rush?" Armin called up, panting and sore. These first few days climbing up two flights of stairs constantly has taken a toll on him.

Connie looked down and laughed at the struggling boy below. "I have soccer practice. It starts in like ten minutes and I need to get down to the fields."

"I didn't know you played soccer," Armin pointed out, finally pulling himself up the final step and straightening himself out. He really could use to get in better shape.

His roommate shrugged. "I've never played before. I just wanted to try it, so I'm on the JV team. If I spend so much time playing video games, I might as well get some exercise, you know?" Armin laughed and waited for him to unlock the door, revealing the still-clean and well-decorated room. It really did look like home, after all. The blonde knew that homesickness was bound to hit him soon, but not yet. He took a seat at his desk and began to unload his backpack and start on his homework.

"Dude," Connie laughed, "You're already doing homework?"

"Well, yeah. Remember we have Saturday classes?"

He hastily pulled on a t-shirt and bent down to tie his sneakers. "Yeah, but like two. And one of those is your free period!"

"Well, then I won't have to do homework on Sunday night."

"Whatever floats your boat, man," the boy laughed and hurried out the door.

Armin chose for his afternoon activity to be yearbook. He wasn't interested in any of the fall sports and he was _way_ too timid to perform in the theater, so that was one of the only remaining options. Besides, he wasn't opposed to taking pictures and writing captions. It seemed like fun. He checked his watch. Good. He had about forty-five minutes to get started on homework. He could probably finish biology and English really quickly, and he could complete a substantial portion of his math if he really tried. That would just leave German and history for later.

"Hey!" a voice called as the door swung open. Armin jumped, the pencil precariously-balanced between his fingers falling to the floor. "Armin!"

"Y-yeah?" the blonde asked, bending down to retrieve the utensil. He glanced up. Eren.

Eren invited himself in and took a seat on Connie's bed. "I just wanted to come in and say hi, that's all. Football practice doesn't start for another fifteen minutes."

"Oh."

"So," the brunette asked, leaning over in Armin's direction. "Whatcha doin'?"

"Biology homework."

"Pfft!" Eren exclaimed. "Have some fun!"

"This isn't really a good time to have fun," Armin pointed out. "Everyone's leaving for sports practice. So I might as well get this work done."

"I guess," he said, shrugging. "So, what's your activity?"

"Yearbook."

"Figures."

"What?"

"Nothing."

Armin rolled his eyes and jotted down a quick answer on the paper in front of him. It was somewhat of a talent of his to be able to talk and do homework simultaneously. "Hey," Eren began again, "do you want to go with me and Mikasa to get some food at the snack bar tonight? We can watch something on TV there, too."

"Oh, uh sure. It depends on the situation with my homework. I usually get back from yearbook pretty late, so..."

"Come on, Armin! You're really smart! How long could this stuff take you? Like ten minutes?"

"Well, my German homework's kinda hard. We have to write an essay -"

"That's due on Wednesday. C'mon! It's Friday! Come hang out with us!"

"Alright, alright," Armin raised his hands and smiled. "I'll see you there at six, okay?"

"Okay!" Eren exclaimed and bolted out of the room. "Gotta run!"

The skinny blonde sighed, sat back in his chair, and kicked off his shoes. It had been a long day and, despite the homework load being alright, he was exhausted. Maybe he really _could_ use a social life. He lifted the pencil he had deposited on his desk not long before and started on the next problem, mind whirring and patience thinning.

 **-Time Skip-**

"We need to start planning out some possible themes," Erwin explained and quickly twisted the cap off of the dry-erase marker. He turned to the whiteboard and began to write "IDEAS" in a loud, gigantic font. However, the ink that left the utensil seemed to be running thin. "Ugh, not another one," he mumbled and turned to toss the marker across the room and into the trash. Armin knew he was a senior from when he first introduced himself, the one that everyone thought would graduate with the highest marks and proceed into the most prestigious university. That's exactly what _he_ wanted. Maybe he should pay attention to how this guy handles things before he's gone and off to college.

"Alright," Erwin began, glancing around. "What do we have?"

"Movie theater!"

"Mathematics!"

"Poetry!"

"Shakespeare!"

"Whoa. Whoa," Erwin laughed, raising one hand and beginning to write with the other. "One at a time. I'm no magician or anything." He took a moment to write the aforementioned ideas on the board before motioning for us to keep going.

"Cupcakes!" A pause.

"Penguins!"

Erwin turned around and raised a thick brow. "Penguins?"

"Yes," a student replied and chuckled. "Penguins are cool."

"A penguin-themed yearbook?"

"Well, yeah."

"Okay," Erwin shrugged and added the word to the list. As he did, he said, "Armin. You got anything?"

"Huh? Me? Oh, I'm not really creative enough -"

"Sure you are. What do you have?" Erwin inquired and turned to look at the blonde. They weren't very different in appearance to tell the truth. It was almost as if Armin was peering at some sort of mirror into the future.

Armin looked down and tried to think. "Well, maybe we could go off of the penguin idea... How about Antarctica-themed? It might be a barren wasteland, but scientists around the world are working together to better understand it. I think it would be cool to base our yearbook around the idea that we should ignore our differences and nationalities to work together for the greater benefit of society. Maybe we could also place an emphasis on exploration and trying new things."

"Good thinking, Armin. You're a freshman, right?" Erwin asked as he wrote the word 'Antarctica' on the white board just below 'Penguins'.

"Yes."

"And you said you weren't creative."

 **-Time Skip-**

"C'mon, _please_ tell me!" Eren pleaded and held Armin's right hand to his chest. The blonde immediately felt a bit disturbed by the way the brunette was leaning so far into his personal space. "I won't tell anyone! I'm your friend, you can trust me!"

"Don't trust him," Mikasa stated bluntly, holding up the remote and speeding through TV channels.

Eren glared at his sister and let Armin's hand go, dramatically falling back into the couch. "Mikasa, aren't _you_ curious as to what the yearbook theme is?"

"I'm not allowed to tell you," Armin put in.

"Like Armin said, we're not allowed to know, so quit bugging him about it. Now pay attention to the TV or I absolutely _will_ pick Twilight," Mikasa said and glanced over at the boys to her right. "I'm not afraid to. Channel 59."

"You don't even like Twilight," Eren pointed out and crossed his arms. "Why would you subject yourself to that torture?"

"It's not torture. I love horrible movies. They make me feel good about myself," the girl retorted and stopped scrolling. "Oooh, how about this?"

Eren scoffed. "Jaws? That movie's like so old. Old horror movies aren't scary _at all."_

"Have you even _seen_ Jaws?" Mikasa argued, setting the TV to that channel. "Please tell me you have."

"Well, I haven't, but that's probably because it _sucks,_ " Eren spat, pushing himself farther back into the couch.

Armin raised a brow. "I've read the book. It wasn't amazing or anything, but it was pretty terrifying. I haven't seen the movie either, but I've heard it was incredibly unique for its time. Heck, it made the world scared to swim for a little while. I'm sure you'll like it."

"Who are you people? _Both_ of you haven't seen this movie?" Mikasa exclaimed in disbelief, though not straying from her usual emotionless attitude and stood up. "Oh, they just called us. I'll go get our food."

"So," Eren asked, glancing up at the commercials on the screen every so often, "what's the yearbook theme?"

"No," was the only reply Armin gave.

"Well, who else is in yearbook?"

"I'm not answering that, Eren."

"C'mon, Armin Alert! I can't wait until May to find out!"

"Good things come to those who wait."

"Wisey McWiseFace with his wise wisdom," Eren pouted and looked up to see Mikasa returning with a basket of chicken and fries. "Ah, you're a god, 'Kasa."

"I know," she chuckled and carefully placed the food on the table, eyeing the brunette. "Don't eat all of it before the movie starts."

Surprisingly enough, Eren managed to stay silent for almost the entire film, the same panic-stricken look never leaving his face. Armin chuckled to himself. He knew that this hot-headed freshman wouldn't admit it, but he was _definitely_ scared. He wondered if Mikasa could pick that up too. Despite her lack of expression, her dark eyes seemed to be able to read people well. Armin found himself curled up in a blanket, sweating internally at the sight of the shark, prowling the screen in search of her next victim. Even though humans liked to admit it, he thought, they weren't the top of the food chain without their weapons and inventions. With brute force, nearly anything could kill them. What set them apart was their capability of higher thought. But what if a shark like Jaws possessed that ability? Well, they'd be unstoppable. Cognitive ability. He understood its importance very well.

 **-Time Skip-**

"Hey Armin, wanna go see the bonfire? It's out on the Quad," Eren called, practically kicking the door open.

Connie turned around in his chair and glared. "Jesus, Eren! Knock before you come in here and disturb the peace!"

Eren rolled his eyes. "You're playing Call of Duty. How much peace _is_ there in here?"

"Guys, I'm trying to do homework," Armin mumbled and pulled out his headphones. "What's the big fuss?"

"Dude, it's Saturday. You have plenty of time to finish," Eren said, striding over to the blonde and slapping a hand on his shoulder. "There's a bonfire. S'mores! And other human beings!"

Connie cleared his throat and raised a hand. "Connie doesn't count," the brunette added. "You haven't done anything except for homework all week. How much do you have?"

Armin pulled his hands away from the keyboard he had been furiously typing on just before. "Well, I was writing a few extra essays because I found some certain concepts to be rather interesting and wanted to research them further. For example, have you ever noticed that there seems to be a close correlation with human maturity and the collective development of ancient and modern society?"

"Armin Alert, you need to calm yourself. I have no idea what you just said. You have a whole year to do this extra stuff? Why do it all in the second week of school?" Eren said and started pacing in the room.

"It's a very interesting subject and, should I find _more_ interesting subjects like that, I don't want to be backed up by my other works!" Armin retorted and glanced out the window to see the bonfire illuminating the landscape bathed in sunset. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I got a bit fired up. I shouldn't have been so mean."

"Armin," Eren laughed. "You don't need to apologize. You weren't even being mean. I'll let you off this time, but we need to hang out more, okay? We're friends and I don't just want that to go away because you like your homework more than anything else." The brunette raised a hand and bid his farewell, striding out of the room and into the hallway.

"Shut the door on the way out, Eren!" Connie shouted, but it was too late. The boy groaned and lazily slid out of his chair to kick it shut, mumbling something about the brunette getting him killed "like three times". "You have the weirdest friends, Armin. Honestly, how does someone that actually behaves like you become friends with _Eren?_ "

"I don't really know, to be honest," Armin sighed and turned his head to see Eren sprinting across the street and over to the bonfire. "I'm surprised he even has the patience for me." He once again brought his fingers to the keyboard and continued to write, the words in his mind transferring onto the document with ease.

 _Perhaps the clearest representation of this theory can be found at the dawn of civilization itself. It is common for children to develop a dependence and attachment to stuffed animals or various animal figures. When one recalls that many early religions involved the worship anthropomorphic deities, this resemblance easily comes to light. Children have a tendency to fear the unknown, to respect the source of power that is the natural world. Like the ancient Egyptians, Mayans, and many more, children recognized that the world around them held a position of authority over them. For ancient societies, this is displayed through the respect that the people paid toward their animal gods. It all comes to represent a further idea that early in the development of both individual humans and collective societies, there was much less focus on ambitious tasks but rather survival by being aware of what little power they have._

 **-Time Skip-**

"Armin, Armin, Armin!" Eren shouted, prodding the blonde's backside with a pencil. They were in history class together, and it still baffled Armin as to how someone so disinterested in the subject was placed in the honors class.

"What?" Armin hisses and turned around, brow furrowed and lips curved into a frown. "We're not supposed to be talking, you know that!"

"I have a question," Eren said, trying his best to keep his voice as low as possible.

Armin rolled his eyes. "What is it?"

"Where's Bosnia and Hairsgovina?"

"You mean Herzegovina. We literally just went over this in class."

"I was thinking about something else."

"Yeah, clearly."

"So where is it?"

"Southeast Europe."

"Yeah, but where?"

"You know where Croatia is?"

"Yeah. It's the one that's shaped like a C."

"Bosnia and Herzegovina is inside the arc of that C."

"Thanks."

Armin turned around, thanking whatever god was up there that he hadn't been caught discussing answers to a sheet they were supposed to work on alone. Hm. Maybe one of those gods up there were the ones he had been researching before. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that anyone could be right about what was up there. Either way, the majority of the world will be wrong.

"Hey Armin," Eren whispered again, forcing the blonde to cease his thoughts and grit his teeth.

"Pay attention to your work, Eren," he hisses, refusing to turn around.

"This is unrelated," the brunette pointed out and tapped Armin's shoulder.

Armin crossed his arms. "Then save it for later."

"But I'll forget if I don't say it now."

 _"What?"_

"I went to the zoo the other day. It was empty except for a single dog."

"Eren-"

"It was a Shih Tzu," he giggled.

Armin pressed a hand to his face and got back to work, only to jump at the sound of Mr. Pixis' voice. "Eren! Do I need to separate you from everyone else?"

"No, sir," the boy in question replied dejectedly. Armin could hear his pencil scratching at his worksheet behind him, almost angrily.

A few minutes later, the bell rang and sent of all the students packing their bags and preparing for their next class. "Hey, let's go see the soccer game today!" Eren exclaimed as they passed through the doorway, just about to go to their respective classes.

Armin sighed. "Eren, we need to talk about this class thing -"

"Are you gonna be there?!"

"Eren!"

"Look, I gotta run, but I'll see you at lunch and we can talk then!" the brunette raised a hand to wave goodbye and sped down the hallway. Armin sighed. He was definitely going to get yelled at even before he got to class. Did he even care? Shaking it off, he tried to distract those thoughts by thinking of his next class. Biology, right? He had Ms. Langnar next.

 **-Time Skip-**

Armin sighed and pulled his covers back over his shoulders. It was too comfy in this bed. He had his blue blanket. He had his reading homework. It was perfect. Then Eren had to come along and ruin it.

"You knew I wanted to know, Armin," Eren put in and reached up to tap the boy's shoulder.

"Are you standing on Connie's bed? He's gonna kill you," Armin mumbled and placed a bookmark between the pages in front of him. "Get off of there."

"Yeah, yeah. But do you want to go to the soccer game? You already rejected the bonfire. You have _plenty_ of time to get this reading done. Why not live a little?"

"Don't you play soccer?"

"I play football. Didn't you remember?"

"Can't we just go another day? I'm super cozy here under the covers."

"You get to be 'super cozy under the covers' literally every night, Armin Alert!" Eren moaned and hopped down off of Connie's bed frame. He crossed his arms and looked up at the blonde above.

Armin poked his head over the railing on his bed. "I also wanted to talk to you about class today."

"Later. We need to get going down to the fields if we want to get good spots. We can even get apple cider. They have it today," Eren said, casting the previous issue aside and grinning from ear to ear. "Come on! Socialize! Have fun!"

"Reading is fun," Armin yawned. "Can I _please_ stay up here?"

Eren's expression fell as he took a step back toward the door. "Yeah, okay. Well, maybe next time, then... I guess I'll go with Thomas."

As soon as he left, Armin excitedly reopened his book and searched for where he ended on the page. Suddenly, a strange thought hit him. Was he being a bad friend, not hanging out with Eren? Well, he _did_ watch Jaws with him and Mikasa less than a week ago. Surely that was enough to suffice. But maybe it wasn't. A pang of regret hit his chest. Even if he was annoying, the idea of losing Eren as a friend shook him. He really seemed like a good guy at heart.

 **-Time Skip-**

Armin met his first friend in the third grade. Until then, he had jumped from acquaintance to acquaintance, each of them growing weary of the brainiac's tireless working. That was, until he met Dexter, a student equally as bent on becoming the next Einstein as he was on receiving a better test grade than Armin. At first, this had annoyed him, for he viewed the short, slightly-large boy as a threat of some sort. Their friendship began with an intense rivalry, but as a result of Armin's quiet disposition, it appeared to be very one-sided when in fact, Armin was equally as invested in these unofficial competitions as his opponent was.

The two of them were very evenly matched, Dexter often taking home the bragging rights with mathematics and science while Armin dominated in history, English, and foreign language. Even so, Armin could a recall a few times when he was able to score higher in even his rival's strong points. After a year of this, as nature would have it, the two of them grew to be incredibly close. To Armin, this was fairly strange, as he had only had relationships as familiar as this with his immediate family. He supposed that it always had been that way, in reality. Perhaps this was why his first few weeks as Rose Academy were a difficult adjustment. He didn't _really_ know what friends were.

Even so, Armin and Dexter remained friends until the fifth grade science fair. The both of them were incredibly passionate about their works, but even more so about their rivalry. When the day finally arrived, Dexter's project mysteriously disappeared without a trace. The boy was heartbroken beyond repair and, because of the bittersweet nature of their relationship, found Armin to be the most likely culprit. Of course, Armin denied doing such a thing, but the damage had been done. He had struggled to become close friends with anyone ever since.

The blonde raised a shaking hand to the wooden door before him. Now that he thought about it, he had never even seen the inside of Eren and Jean's room before. _Knock, knock, knock._ He waited. Was he a bad friend for not visiting earlier? Ever since yesterday, he had been stressing over it. "Come in!" Eren's voice sounded from inside, muffled by the thickness of the door. Armin tried his best to clear his head, turned the knob, and stepped inside.

The room was everything that he had expected it to be - messier than a garage sale, smellier than a gym locker. It was the stereotypical adolescent male habitat. "Welcome to my humble home," Eren said, dashing across the room in search of a t-shirt that wasn't too dirty. "How's it?"

"Oh, uh, it's going well," Armin replied, taking a note of how much more cramped the room appeared to be with all of the clothing and objects strewn about. "What are you up to?"

"I'm trying to find something to change into... I really ought to clean up around here every once in a while," Eren mumbled, finally locating a t-shirt he deemed to be in good condition. Without hesitation, he pulled off his red polo and slid his replacement on, smiling. "Did you need something?"

"Oh, uh, yeah. I wanted to know if you wanted to go apple picking with me this weekend. I think the school's taking some people on Sunday," Armin said, the nervousness evident in his voice. "If you want."

"I would," Eren replied, but I sort of already committed to a football scrimmage that day. Sorry."

"That's alright," Armin sighed and made his way back to the door. "I just thought I'd ask." His mind was racing, unsure of what to make of the situation. Just his luck, Eren was busy right when he wanted to actually socialize. Perhaps he didn't deserve it, not after all of the times he rejected hanging out with the aggressive brunette before. He strode down the hallway to his room and started to think. _Come on, Armin, you should've asked when he was free! You should've asked what he'd like to do! This is all your fault!_

 **Author's Note:** _I want to thank everyone that left reviews, you're really great and as always, I really appreciate any suggestions, ideas, and criticism. I know this chapter was a bit shorter in length that what I was going for, and it was chopped up quite a bit, but I'm sure this won't happen with all of them, haha! I'm also aware that plenty of major characters haven't made appearances yet, but there are some that are about to get their debuts. Still others I'm going to develop more since I've noticed that this chapter was very Armin-Eren-centric. I'm going to try to keep the "screen time" and character development balanced between all of the "major" characters. However, these first few chapters will serve as mostly an introduction to Armin, Eren, Jean, and Connie._


End file.
